The T26E5 Patriot

Coinciding with Veteran’s Day 2016, Wargaming NA released a new tier 8 Premium tank for the American nation, the
VIIIT26E5 Patriot
. It's a heavy tank, featuring a fantastic 90mm cannon with APCR rounds for both its standard AND premium rounds. Will this tank be worth it? Lets take a closer look

Crew

For my crew, I am using my
XT110E5
crew and a radio operator from my
VIIIT32
. All crew members have BIA, repairs, and I have 6th sense. There is no specialty which I would focus on, just get your repairs, BIA, 6th, and then work your typical crew skills such as vision and gun handling.

Loadout

Your tank carries 69 rounds, which is great because you’ll completely FLY through them given the chance. Your standard APCR rounds have 230mm of penetration, while your premium APCR rounds have 259mm. Until I have a better feel for the tank, I will carry 45 standard rounds, 20 APCR, and 4 HE. I have not tested the profitability of the tank spamming only premium APCR, but I do NOT feel like the profitability of the tank is great enough without personal reserves or Stronghold bonuses to make up for that cost.

Equipment

Two pieces of equipment are obvious: The Vertical Stabilizer Mk 2, and the Medium Caliber Gun Rammer. For your 3rd piece, it will depend upon your playstyle. In my opinion, running Vents is the way to go IF you’re going to use Cola. However, if Cola is too expensive for your taste, I would instead choose Coated Optics.

Consumables

For now, I am running a small med pack, a small repair pack and Cola. You could drop Cola for an auto extinguisher if you’d like to save a few credits, but as long as you’re not spamming premium APCR you’ll hardly notice the cost of the Cola.

Armor

In short: Its good. Frontally, you’re immune to most tier 6 and 7 Medium tanks, and immune to most tier 6 and 7 Heavies as your upper and lower plates of armor are about 185-190 head-on. You will troll D25-T (the Russian 122mm gun) with simple angling, and if you’re utilizing your depression, frontally you’re exceptionally strong against all opponents but tier 10 TDs. Your turret is slightly weaker than the
VIIIT32
turret, having an area outside of the mantle which features areas of 200-220mm protection, and your turret ring is a bit more prominent. Your sides, if over angled, can be easily penetrated. If you’ve played the
XT110E5
a lot, to advance in this tank its a much similar “walk” towards your opponent, attempting to make them shoot an over-angled area.

The Good, the Average, the Bad

Many of these strengths and weaknesses have already been touched upon, but it's certainly a good time to lay them out

The Good:

DPM of 2500 with Cola/Vents is AMAZING (5.7 second reload)

Turret is exceptionally solid, with no over-matching area for 122mm guns to abuse

Your frontal armor is exceptional overall for the typical US HT

-10/+20 for your gun elevations

230 standard ammo pen

390 base VR is easy to extend out to max VR of 445m

The Average:

Shell Velocity on the APCR is nothing exceptional, barely over 1000 FPS

Mobility is better than the
VIIIT32
, and worlds better than the
VIIIT34

Overall gun handling is not quite like the Pershing, but its solid

The Bad:

90mm gun has horrible alpha for a heavy tank (240 per round)

Snap shots will seem to fly into no where from time to time

Did catch fire with a hit to the engine area on the first hit

Playstyle

The armor profile allows for a much more varied approach than the
VIIIT32
, making it a better city brawler than the
VIIIT32
,
VIIIT34
, and
VIIIM26 Pershing
. It’s much more like the
VIIIT26E4 SuperPershing
, which can bully lower tiers frontally with little to no worries. Against its peer Heavy Tanks, it can trade 2 for 1 MUCH better than any other HT at its tier, in effect giving it the best alpha at 480. In this manner, its much like the
XFV215b
at trading its HP to get two shots off for each shot it takes in return.

And of course, if you’re able to find a hull-down position without the threat of arty, you’re going to have an even better game.

Replay

Verdict

Within the game files, this tank is listed as being9,700 , which roughly means about $45 USD. At this cost, this tank is absolutely worth it if you either need a credit grinder or a great American HT crew trainer. With the ability to get away with almost just standard rounds for the majority of your battles, this will grind out credits exceptionally fast, and be a MUCH more enjoyable play than the
VIIIT34
. I would buy it if I needed either one of these options